Four more crematory vaults found packed with bodies

Coroner 'can't even begin to guess' how many corpses will be found

February 19, 2002 Posted: 5:10 AM EST (1010 GMT)

The bodies have been found in steel vaults and pits, authorities
say.

NOBLE,
Georgia (CNN) --Investigators searching for bodies Monday on the
grounds of Tri-State Crematory in northwest Georgia discovered four more steel
vaults packed with human remains, bringing the estimated total of corpses to
more than 200, a state official said.

The number of bodies identified had risen to 27 by Monday evening, when
Georgia Chief Medical Examiner Kris Sperry said authorities had recovered 139
sets of remains.

Another vault stuffed with rotting corpses had been discovered Saturday.

"All of those are filled with human remains. I can't even begin to guess
at how many bodies may in those in total. It's just incomprehensible,"
Sperry told reporters.

Authorities found more than 20 corpses stuffed into the first vault.
Approximately 7 feet long, 4 feet wide and 4 feet tall, each vault is designed
to hold a single casket.

A bond hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon for suspect Ray Brent Marsh,
28, was delayed indefinitely, said Buzz Franklin, district attorney for Walker
County. Marsh is charged with 16 felony counts of deception by fraud, one count
for each of the bodies identified at the time he was charged.

The delay will give Marsh, son of the crematory's owners, an opportunity to
obtain counsel, the prosecutor said. The charges refer to the failure to perform
the cremations that were purchased. Each charge carries a potential prison
sentence of one to 15 years.

Others may be charged, too, said Walker County Sheriff Pete Wilson.
"Certainly, we've got to take a look at the father, there's no doubt about
that," he said.

But the elder Marsh is confined to a hospital bed, Wilson said. "His
health issues would have to be taken into account."

Officials said no evidence of foul play had been found in any of the deaths.

Walker County Coroner Dewayne Wilson, who is not related to the sheriff, said
his office was trying to contact family members of the identified bodies. Eight
or nine of the bodies have already been released to family members, he said.

Three area crematories have offered to cremate the bodies found on the
property free of charge, he said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has brought in additional agents to help
interview family members, said Vernon Keenan, assistant director of the GBI.

"We have been overwhelmed with the number of family members who have
responded to the news about the situation here," he said.

In addition, the Georgia Department of Corrections sent 24 probation officers
and correctional officers Monday to join search teams scouring the area to
recover remains.

Lake to be checked

The state's Department of Natural Resources is checking the water quality in
a lake on the crematory's property to determine whether it is safe for divers,
said Buzz Weiss, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

DNR is checking the feasibility of draining the lake, he said, and officials
may use an underwater camera, too, authorities said.

Gov. Roy Barnes is checking into the possibility of drafting legislation that
would "close some of the obvious loopholes regarding facilities of this
type," said Weiss.

Local and state authorities are on the scene, and a federal mortuary
team is expected to begin helping on Tuesday.

Area funeral homes have told authorities that, from 1996 until February 15,
2002, about 350 bodies were sent to the crematory, the coroner said.

Hundreds of families have brought in pictures and identification in attempts
to find out whether the bodies of their relatives were cremated, he said.

Efforts to recover the remains were slow because many are in wooded areas and
inaccessible places, Sperry said. The goal is to keep remains intact, where
possible.

"The volume of what we're finding is growing by the hour," Sperry
added. "There are dozens of bodies massed together."

Authorities say the investigation is just beginning, and more bodies may be
found. They have identified other parcels of land owned by the family and may
search them, too.

Sperry and other officials met Monday afternoon with families whose loved
ones may have been handled by the crematory. Grief counselors are working with
families and emergency workers, officials said.

Urns of powdered cement

Members of a federal disaster mortuary response team -- forensic
anthropologists, forensic pathologists and other specialists -- were to begin
helping Tuesday. DNA specimens will be collected to aid in identification.

The team will staff an 8,000-square-foot portable morgue shipped from
Rockville, Maryland, Sperry said.

Teams also are evaluating cremated remains brought to them by families whose
loved ones were sent to the crematory and are trying to confirm whether the
ashes are of human origin.

Sperry said investigators have examined 51 urns of ashes. Of those, nine
contained nothing more than powdered cement.

Marsh was arrested Saturday. He told authorities the facility's incinerator
had not worked for some time, Sheriff Wilson said.

Marsh lives in a house near the crematory, while his mother and father live
on the crematory's grounds. Marsh's father opened the business in the early
1970s, and his son has been running it since the mid-1990s.

Authorities were first alerted to unusual activity at the site last November,
when an anonymous tipster called the EPA office in Atlanta, 85 miles away,
claiming to have stumbled across human bones on the property while walking a
dog, Wilson said.

Authorities met with the Marshes but did not search the property and found
nothing. A second complaint in recent days led to the grisly discovery.

Tri-State Crematory was operating with a legal permit, authorities said.